15 Sep 10 - "The last solar minimum should have ended
last year, but something peculiar has been happening," says Phil
Berardelli in an article published today in Science. "Although
solar minimums normally last about 16 months, the current one has
stretched over 26 months—the longest in a century."

According to a paper submitted to the International Astronomical
Union Symposium No. 273, the magnetic field strength of sunspots appears to be
waning.

"This trend would lead to only half the number of spots in Cycle
24 compared to Cycle 23," say the paper's authors
Matthew Penn and William Livingston. It would also imply "virtually no sunspots in Cycle 25."

If the trend continues, the sun's face may become spotless by
2016 and remain that way for decades, says Berardelli. A similar dearth of
sunspots in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on
Earth known as the Little Ice Age.